What she said…
Michelle was off by one kid, but the title of her post today on her blog says it all: 5 women; 13 kids; one cabin.
I am one of the 5 women and I am bringing 4 of the kids (she forgot my nephew when she did her head count).
Some crazy woman came up with this idea of doing a road trip with other mothers & kids. Thought it might be fun to see parts of Arizona that can only be seen by getting in a car and just driving. The idea was spend a week or two and drive to odd places and stay in cheap hotels. Then it became a part hotel and part camping trip for about a week. All we had to do was find a week when all interested parties could make it. And, well…after much discussion, a few threats, and some name calling we managed to come up with 4 days in all of summer that we could all get out of town together. So, we decided to pick a cabin in any city cooler that Phoenix. We found a cabin and a fool for deciding to rent it to us. The description for the cabin states that it fits 10 people. We explained to the rental agency that we were a tad more than 10, but that we still thought we could fit.
Today we had a meal planning meeting at my house. Everyone showed up and to prove we were serious about meal planning the first thing we did was start eating. Well, feeding kids and eating. We had all the kids together playing, giving each other makeovers, vegging out on old Brady Bunch episodes, and playing on computers.
We managed to come up with ideas about meals. No easy feat considering we have 1 vegan, 1 vegetarian, 1 avoiding high glycemic index foods, 1 with food sensitivities to wheat, oats, eggs, tomatoes, and dairy. And then there’s me…I am nearly the world’s pickiest eater. Nearly because my son and my nephew are even worse. So, I’ll be the one with the extra suitcase that smells suspiciously like convenient store eats like Slim Jims, Cheddar Cheese flavor Pringles, and foods from the Hostess Food Group (that only didn’t make it by name on the food pyramid because of the strong lobbying by the Little Debbie Food Group that ended up nasty and a compromise to share the food group and call it "fats, oils, and sweets.").
After much discussion some group meals were decided upon. And it was also decided that I was allowed to help with prep but not much actual cooking except for at breakfast and only if someone could check after to make sure I turned off all things that heat up. I should never have shared that I learned yesterday what tater tots look like if they cook for over 3 hours.
We are supposed to have Internet while we are there and at least two of us are planning on writing about our experiences when we are 5 women; 14 kids; one cabin…
